Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

We moved in to our home in November and it's nowhere near where I want it to be. I barely have time to clean never mind remove wallpaper, weed or plant flowers. I get very depressed because it doesn't look like I want it to and I don't have any time to do things or money to hire people to do them for me.

We are replacing the liner on our pool and I am just so sad that the pool is going to look so nice yet the landscaping needs so much work.

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

I think that you just have to do a little at a time...it will always be a work in progress. This is how we are going into home buying...knowing that we can't do everything at one time.

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

Pace yourself, maybe work on one room at a time? Then hit the outside?

We made ourselves a "plan" in terms of interior/exterior so as to not overwhelm ourselves.

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

It's going to be a thirty year process!

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

I can relate. We bought our home in December. It's a complete fixer upper and DH is doing all the work himself - what he does for a living. I've learned to focus on small things at a time. I took the kitchen and worked on that until it was done. Does the living room right next to it look gross? Yes. But all in good time. I originally had my hands in each room doing different things and got so overwhelmed I stopped working on the house completely. One room at a time little by little works better for me.

Don't worry, it will get done. Most importantly, you own a house!

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

spent alot of money in a short period of time, unfortunately, using hired contractors and landscapers and ordering things online.

most of my house is as done as it can be for my budget, so i am satisfied.

took about 3 years but the bulk of the work was done in year 1

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

my parents help us out so much. either with babysitting, or coming to do the work... they are 60 this year and so thankful that they are as spry and young as they are! can't beat my parents!!

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

We did it step by step & cut costs by doing things ourselves. Of course that meant a lot of nights afterwork & the weekends dedicated to projects. For us, we were fortunate enough to purchase a home that was completely new inside bc we bought from a contractor.

Our outside was a completely different story! We had things growing in places they should not have. We also were very fortunate to have both my parents help a great deal in the cleanup. We did hire workers to do the stonework but everything else was done by DH, my parents & myself..I do a lot of cleaning over the course of the week & by the time the weekend comes, it is just a quick go over...We will be in our house 3 years in August & I can finally say our house is complete (for the time being).

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

I am in my house for 10 and a half years....and I'm STILL not done. We've redone EVERY single room in the house and the exterior too. But I always find more to do.

Take one room at a time. It will get there.

Rome wasn't built in a day.

And if you're anything like me, once you think you've "finished", your tastes will change and you'll go do things all over again anyway.

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

i agree with everybody else.. i think houses are always a work in progress. we bought ILs house from them- they lived here for 25 years, and there were STILL things they never got to that they wanted to do and AND MIL is a SAHW, and FIL is a pilot who has a lot of time off between trips.... so they have TONS of time for projects, and they still never got to them. other stuff just gets in the way....
for me, as long as everything is in good shape and its comfortable to live here, i don't care about my house being a "showplace". clean, yes- but its not gonna be a designers showplace, and i'm ok with that.
just take it one step at a time

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

I just let it go...I hardly ever clean and we're taking baby steps on the things that need to getfixed. I'd rather spend my time and money on family, friends, and doing things...

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

We are fortunate enough to have fathers that are handy. My father is retired and has done alot of work for us around the house. Everything outside we did ourself (some pics in my album). My DHs friend had a bobcat so we were able to pull out bushes, ivy etc with that and get stuff done. this week we spent the weekend (me on Sat & both of us on Sunday) moving 10 yards of mulch in our backyard. It isn't done yet but will be this week when I finish planting the flowers around the pool.

As for wallpaper and painting etc we did that before we moved in. We took a month and took down wallpaper and painted every room we could---we would go to work and then go to the house for a few hours and then go back to our apartment or sleep on an air mattress to get it done.

Since we bought we have redid our whole den floor (pics in album) and our main bathroom (some pics in album) and have used bonus money and money we have saved over the two years.

I am trying to get the house done before we have kids, at least the inside, roof, siding and windows because I don't want the construction going on with a child. It has been stressful and time consuming and we have given up going out or doing other things to do things around the house. Little by little it is getting done.
Good luck!

Message edited 6/17/2008 7:30:25 PM.

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

It definitely takes time!

I was somewhat of a lunatic trying to get things the way i wanted them because i'm impatient. But it takes time. Here we are over a year and a half later in our new house and i still don't have the dresser i want for the guest bedroom. And the other guest bedroom i haven't painted yet, but that's my husbands man room right now so it's okay.

Just a month ago, we finally started doing some landscaping. I hated not having anything except grass. But it takes time and money. It's a process!

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

Thanks everyone It's nice to hear that I'm not the only one. I don't mind doing things myself but these days it's hard because of the new baby and dd.

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

DH and I killed ourselves fixing up our house for the first 6 months we lived in it and then slowed down. There is still a lot to do but it takes time and lots of $$. We seem to be on the "one big project a year" plan.

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

November? DH bought the house 4 years ago and we are NOWHERE near finished.

We can only do so many project per year. Then it posponned if we have to take care of an emergency repair.

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

We do a little each year...it's a slow process, but we figure we are here for at least 20 years so we can take our time.

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

We bought our house 3 years ago and we are not close to being done. We have focused on the inside with hopes of doing more on the exterior (new driveway, paint, etc) next year. My hubby does the work himslef so it is usually a slow process but always an imporvement and he does such a great job.

With everything being so expensive we are just taking our time.

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

We're nowhere near finished.

We've been trying to take it one project at a time. DH has put together a list and puts it on the calendar. We take a bit of a break in between large projects - after we get the feeling of accomplishment - and just maintain things the way they are.

We didn't start landscaping until after we'd been here over a year (other than pulling out a few weeds and mowing the lawn). It's still a work in progress - and will always be.

Message edited 6/18/2008 8:56:35 AM.

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

I can relate to this so much!!! Our pool looks great but our patio is a mess we have to mow it, more grass grows on that than on our lawn . Looking at everything else that needs to be done can be so overwhelming. We have a list of things we want to do and each weekend we pick something and work on it. Little by little everything will get done. You haven't been in your house that long cut yourself some slack .

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

I hear you...we moved two months ago, and are hardly ever home, so we still have tons of boxes to unpack. Before we moved in we did a lot of painting. There's still some left, and we've barely touched a brush since moving in. There never seems to be enough time. I just keep telling myself that it's a work in progress.

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

We closed on our house in July '07 and moved in Nov '07. We worked on the house as well as contractors for the first 4 months and then we moved it. We were fortunate to have money left over after closing to do the work we needed done before we moved in and we are glad we did. I wouldn't have been able to handle living and working in the house at the same time. That is just me. But after we moved in we made a list of things we wanted to do to the house (no matter how long it took us to do them) and then we made a list of projects to work on over 1 year. We check things off as we do them. It's a great feeling to see things checked off. It is def. a long process that we all have to deal with when owning a house. And I'm the kind of person that likes everything done yesterday. So I completely understand. Make a small list and see if you can take an hour to do to the small projects. We have been very lucky, my mom loves to garden, so she really helps us with a lot. GL and don't worry about too much.

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

We've owned our house 2 years and still have sooo much to do ! I'll admit we have done a lot so far but I still see the glass as half empty
I've recently decided to work on one room at a time and it's been alot less stress for me ! Plus it feels really nice to actually have a FINISHED room !!

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

my husband & I have done 99% of the work in our house ourselves (with the exception of our heating unit replacement).....it all has to be a little at a time or you will make yourself crazy with too many projects going on. we both work full time, so sometimes its not that easy to find the energy on the weekends. we've been in the house for 2 1/2 years and have only completed the renovation of 3 rooms. our landscaping was non existent for the first two summers in this house, now its finally getting to where we'd want it to be. don't feel bad if you can't get it all done as fast as you'd want, you'll find most homeowners who do the work themselves have the same issue- budget & time!! we have a list of projects on our radar for when we have the time & money to do them.

Re: Where do you find the time, energy and money to make your home the way you want it?

We set it up as small and big projects. Every year we take on something new. 2 years ago it was to remodel the kitchen, last year it was our shed, and next year we want to redo the roof. We do it all year by year with the little projects going in between, mostly on weekends we set aside.